Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Speaking in South Carolina on Tuesday, former Florida Governor and potential 2016 presidential candidate Jeb Bush accused his GOP opponents of “preying on people’s fears" when it comes to immigration reform.

“I have not seen, I don’t know if you’ve seen, a plan that says ‘we’re gonna deport everybody.’ If you have, please pass it on. I’d love to see it. Jeb@jeb.org is my email address if you got a plan. I haven’t seen one.

“The cost of that would be enormous, the time would be enormous, the disruption would be enormous. A better plan would be to say, allow people a path to legalized status. Let them earn legalized status — paying fines, working, not receiving government assistance. Learning English.

"And over a period of time, you earn legalized status where you come out from the shadows. But you’re not cutting in the line with people that have been patiently waiting to try to come in legally.

“It doesn’t matter where you start, where you came from — if you embrace those values, you learn English, you have a respect for our history and our heritage, you’re as American as anybody else.

“You’re lookin’ at a guy who believes what he believes. I’m open to other people’s thoughts. I’m not doctrinaire about my beliefs, but I believe passionately in things. And the fact that not everybody agrees — I don’t look at it ‘oh, end is near.’ I say, I better figure out a better way to persuade.

“What’s so strange today is that we’re fearful of having people having a dialogue where there’s, you know, disagreement. How do we sort out our problems, how do we work to consensus, how do we get where we need to be unless you allow for and tolerate some disagreement?

“Look, I’m pretty convinced that my views are the right views for high, sustained economic growth and fixing these things so that we can move forward. If people have a better idea, I’d like to hear it. But doing nothing — is that a plan? Doing nothing — just let this linger over and over again, these missed opportunities that we have — that’s not a plan. That’s a sentiment. That’s an emotion. That’s preying on people’s fears.

“And people that want to consider running for office have to stop preying on people’s fears and stop dividing us and start forging consensus so that we can move forward.

“No final words other than the fact that you probably are gonna be sick and tired of seeing me up here. I’m excited about the possibilities. I’m learning a lot on this journey and I look forward to being with you in the months to come," Bush said.